In the field of furniture, particularly in the field of furniture for furnishing caravans and/or campers, such as wall-mounted cabinets, lockers or the like, it is known to close the compartments of these pieces of furniture with plate-like closure elements, i.e., doors, which are articulated to the fixed structure of said pieces of furniture so that they can be moved from a closed configuration, in which they are arranged on a substantially vertical plane, to an open configuration, in which they are arranged on a substantially horizontal plane.
Sprung hinges for the articulation and support of these closure elements are known which comprise two articulated quadrilaterals, which share a first lever and a second lever and have as their base element respectively a plate for coupling to a fixed element of the cabinet or the like and a plate for fixing to the closure element.
Known sprung hinges further comprise a spring which acts between two separate parts of the two quadrilaterals or acts on mutually opposite parts of one of them.
In particular, again with reference to doors of wall-mounted cabinets, the coupling plate is secured, by way of threaded means such as screws, to the wall that delimits in an upper region the cabinet and on the surface that faces toward the inside of said cabinet. The fixing plate is fixed to the door on the surface that faces the inside of the cabinet in the closed configuration.
In the closed configuration of the hinge, the fixing plate and the coupling plate are arranged on planes of arrangement which are mutually perpendicular when the door is arranged so as to close the compartment of the cabinet.
In the open configuration of the hinge, the fixing plate and the coupling plate are arranged on planes of arrangement which are mutually parallel when the door is arranged on a substantially horizontal plane.
With particular reference to the use of cabinets, lockers or the like in relatively small environments, sprung hinges are also known which are capable of reducing the space occupation of the door in the open configuration of the hinge.
In particular, in the open configuration of these hinges, the angle measured between the face of the plane of arrangement of the coupling plate that faces the compartment of the cabinet and between the face of the plane of arrangement of the fixing plate that is designed to face, in the closed configuration, the inside of the cabinet, is substantially greater than π rad.
With respect to the known hinges described above, this allows to obtain a further upward opening of the door and therefore obtain a reduced hindrance of the movements of a user of the cabinet within a small environment, such as for example a caravan or a camper.
However, these sprung hinges are not free from drawbacks, including the fact that in the open configuration the spring that acts between two mutually opposite points of one of the quadrilaterals and acts in contrast with the weight force of the door is subject to partial compression and does not ensure the chosen placement of said door, in which the breadth of the angle described above is equal to the set maximum breadth.
The downward action of the weight of the door in fact tends to close the door partially, causing a consequent greater space occupation of the door and hindering user access to the compartment of the cabinet.
Moreover, again with particular reference to application to wall-mounted cabinets of caravans or campers, the elastic action applied by the spring and suitable to keep the hinge in the closed configuration is not such as to prevent the accidental opening of the door, for example when the caravan or camper is moving on a road with bends, with consequent escape of the content of said cabinet.